


Tautology

by TheBlindBandit



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Kissing, Pre-Series, Welcome to earth, homeworld remains the worst, plant control powers, requited pearlrose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 12:43:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5417522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlindBandit/pseuds/TheBlindBandit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Homeworld is oblivious, Pearl is wonderful, and Rose is quite smitten. Fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tautology

After everything that’s happened, everything she’s done and everything they’ve all been through, Rose finds she’s developed a strong sense of appreciation for small, simple things. Although, when so many of the little things are something they’ve only gotten the chance to experience on Earth, a planet they waged a devastating war for, it’s very hard to discard anything as unimportant. She buries her bare toes in the fine sand of the Temple-side beach, pleasantly cool in the early autumn morning, and decides she wants to wait for the tide to come in.

Pearl is nearby, as is her habit - perched on a rocky outcropping, surrounded by long loops of wires and cables and tinkering with something again, seemingly oblivious to Rose’s near-philosophical musings right next to her.

Soon enough, as if they couldn’t resist the sight, Rose’s thoughts turn from contemplative to appreciative. She thinks of the way the long, thin, but surprisingly strong fingers feel when curled around the curve of her upper arm. Or how they look splayed on consoles, or toying with endless moving bits and pieces, uncharacteristically filthy, dipped in motor oil and smudged with engine coolant. Or, perhaps, how they looked placed around the handle of a sword, how that fragile-seeming, narrow chest swelled with pride and defiance, how those bright blue eyes glared challenges at towering enemies and complex blueprints both.

Rose stares and drinks in every minuscule movement Pearl makes, from the slight thoughtful tapping of a single finger on her chin, to the impatient tugging on a disobedient tangle of wire. She feels the distracted, engrossed, and melodious hum Pearl is producing settle like a warm buzz somewhere in her chest, and she lets it bubble up in the form of a mild chuckle. Pearl turns at the sound, expression open and wondering and just the slightest bit puzzled, and Rose realises she’s been caught. “Is something the matter, Rose?”

“No, no, nothing at all. I was just enjoying the view.” She can’t think of a convenient enough excuse, so she opts for distraction and covers the distance between them in two long steps. “Here,” the tickle runs up her arm, and she politely requests a retraction of thorns - the plant obliges, and sprouts forth an exuberantly pink flower. A rose, of course - it doesn’t feel like a day for subtlety at all. “For you, my Pearl.”

Pearl’s face turns so blue so quickly and so intensely she almost seems to be glowing. Rose fails in her half-hearted attempt to suppress a giggle at the achingly endearing sight, then leans down and presses a gentle peck to a burning cheek. She tries for the other one, too, but Pearl is, again, quick and clever and full of surprises, and has apparently foregone components and cabling in favour of tangling her fingers - and freshly received flower - in Rose’s hair, tugging her down into a kiss.

Gems have long memories.

Rose remembers the rumours and whispers, and all of the other things she ignored because she could easily afford to. She remembers becoming the talk of the court over nonsense - _Rose Quartz buys her pearls used, and refuses to have them reset and personalised. But oh, pearls - so funny, how they get attached sometimes, the little things. Why, just last week-_

“Rose, please, listen to reason,” Yellow Diamond herself had found necessary to bring it up with her, once upon a time, in what (thankfully) feels more and more like another lifetime. “Many Gems get overly attached to their pearls, it’s nothing unheard of - and nothing to be ashamed of!” Probably a reaction to the stormy look on Rose’s face rather than anything else. “They’re lovely, of course, they’re _made_ to be. But please, this is going too far. You can’t seriously want me to believe that you think-”

But Pearl looks at her and pulls her out of the strange reminiscence and catches her eye with a cheeky glint and _beams_ , and Rose…

Rose thinks, _they’ve tried to tear down and delegitimise every single thing about us, about you, about everything you’ve achieved; they’ve told me you can’t **really** think or feel or act or want and yet…_

and yet

and yet before her is undoubtedly a Gem; a complete, complex being with hopes and desires and likes and dislikes and habits and thoughts, and Rose has the privilege of knowing and of having been told so many of them, and she can’t understand how there could have been a time when this was all something she was utterly blind to. She also feels honoured, deeply and personally, that she got to witness Pearl throw off so many of the things drilled into her, and that she gets to see her realise her own potential more and more each sweetly brief Earth day. Pearl’s continued presence at her side makes her want to strive, too, and in time make herself truly worthy of it all, and of her.

Rose feels several more feathery, smiley kisses peppered on the corner of her mouth - and it’s a flash of awareness that isn’t so much a sudden realisation as something she’s known for centuries now.

Pearl is direction, devotion, focus, bravery, and determination, and so, so many more things besides, and Rose is in love.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[PODFIC] Tautology](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10241933) by [Kitsune_Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitsune_Heart/pseuds/Kitsune_Heart)




End file.
